The Chinese city I have been living in for the last nine years now has had a very abysmal record with French food or restaurants serving "French-inspired" cuisine. A prior attempt had a space that was intended for ballroom numbers, and that's just wishful thinking for a city that's around five million and between Nanjing and Shanghai on the high speed rail. For the record, I do believe that both bigger cities would have a profoundly hard time filling a massive space on a nightly basis just to break even on it's rent. Foreign food, outside Tier-1 centers like Beijing, Guangzhou, and a few others is a highly boutique and niche business, at best. Chinese butts are not going to flood onto seats in the name of an expensive novelty for a food that's fundamentally alien to them.
Recently, this place, Lignis, opened, and it seemed to correct on the failures that came years before it. The place, while not small, is cozy and intimate. There is no overkill on the decor, and music being played is jazzy enough to feel contemporary, but not hipster. As for the food, here is a quick sampling.
Black mussels in a white wine sauce.
This is octopus with olives and new potatoes in a wine sauce. The white goo in the above photo is garlic infused sour cream.
Goose liver / foie gras and mushrooms stir fried in wine sauce.
And here is seared sea bream cutlet, in some more wine sauce.
This is type of place where you eat the complimentary bread at your peril. Lest you end up with a bunch of sauces you can't sop up and munch without it.
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